Way of the Knights

Chapter 916: The man who likes shiny things

“How’s it, did you manage to track them?” 

“Still no luck.” Skroll grimly replied to General Grimm. “Those pest disappears as soon as the damage is done. The tracks the left are scattered and leads us to nothing. It’s not uniform either so it’s useless.”

General Grimm scowled upon hearing that. “Did you at least figure out what they look like?”

“I can’t even locate their tracks properly, what makes you think that I’d just see them?” Skroll scoffed, finding Grimm’s inquiry stupid. 

It’s been roughly a decade or two since they arrived at this coordinates and started combing the area in search of the Divine Realm. What they initially thought should’ve been an easy search operation turned out to be a major pain in the ass because of their enigmatic pursuers. 

The attacks against them weren’t too obvious. At first it was just once or twice a year. Nothing major nor shocking since they were expecting that this area will have some hostiles around, they’re used to it at this point and their main concern is the Divine Realm so they ignored it. 

That turned out to be a mistake since as time passed, the attacks began to increase and it was sporadic too. There’s no way for them to predict when it’s going to happen. 

What makes things worse is the fact that they can’t even see the shadow of their enemy. They tried multiple times to track them down but the tracks they left always ended-up nowhere. 

Their invisible enemies have ambushed at least 50 expedition groups of them thus far and it doesn’t seem to show any signs of stopping. 

Skroll had been working non-stop, trying his best to do something against this but every attempt he did ended-up in failure. 

General Grimm was also feeling the heat at this moment since they’ve lost a sizeable amount of expedition groups at this point. It would’ve been better if they died in the war since that’s the idea but the war hasn’t even started yet. This is going to reflect badly on his record. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on giving-up just yet. I’m fired-up believe it not. Whoever these enemies are, they’re giving me a good challenge.” Skroll stated. 

“That’s cool and all but what about the troops? We can’t just keep sacrificing them to nobody. The war hasn’t even began yet.” Grimm questioned. 

“Relax.” Skroll waved his hand dismissively. “It’ll be fine. Besides, we’re sending fodder. They’re bound to die anyways so we’re not really losing out on anything.”

“Yet we’re not gaining anything either.” Grimm pressed, “These are nothing but useless waste of resource. Even though they’re fodder they should at least contribute.” 

“Right, right. I hear you. What else do you think I’m doing?” Skroll rolled his eyes, “Alright, shoo now. I have to work. Don’t disturb me if nothing important happens. I have playmates to look for.” 

Grimm just grumbled underneath his breath and left Skroll alone. Honestly, there’s nothing Grimm could do about this. Skroll is already doing his best to remedy the situation so he’s really not needed for now. 

The one thing that bothered him the most is the mysterious identity of their assailants. He wondered it if was humans, but that doesn’t really make sense, according to the memories they siphoned from Finneas, Humans are puny, they were too weak so it shouldn’t be them. 

Plus, Humans have no idea that they’re coming so it really shouldn’t be them. This means that there are locals in here that doesn’t welcome their presence and whoever they are, they are experts at hiding. 

It is worth to note that the Abyssals had no idea that they’re being monitored closely. Every move they made is being analyzed and neutralized by humans without explicitly exposing themselves. 

The Abyssals would have never imagined that humans are using their own against them. Counter Guardians who are made in the same mold of an Abyssal with complete loyalty to humans and served the Order, they are the so called invisible enemies that they are facing. 

What would be their reaction like if they knew that the Counter Guardians already infiltrated their ranks? One could only imagine. 

Once Skroll was alone, the smile on his face disappeared and his optimism was gone. It was replaced by solemnness and irritation as he repeatedly cursed underneath his breath. 

“…damn it all! Show yourselves cowards! How dare you use these pathetic attempts to stop us from out advance towards greatness.” 

Unbeknownst to them all, Skroll’s the one who’s facing the heaviest burden right now. As the proclaimed right hand man of the God Emperor, the expectations out of him are too great. They are all expecting him to eradicate the bastards that are trying to gnaw away at their forces so they can focus on their big project. 

Skroll himself is expecting himself to be able to do this as well since if he couldn’t, nobody else could. If he couldn’t, then all of his hard work will be for naught. 

“Ooh! This is neat!” 

Skroll nearly tripped on his own foot when he suddenly heard a curious voice behind him. He turned around in fright only to see a person walking around his office with a mild curiosity painting their face. 

“Who are you? How did you get here?” Skroll was baffled. He didn’t know who this person is.

“Ooh! What’s this shiny thing over here? What does it do? Hey! There’s a big red button here! I can hear it calling my name, should I press it?”

“No!!” 

Skroll ran forward and instinctively placed himself in between this person and the button that he was eye-ing. 

“Aw…you’re no fun.” 

“Answer my question damn it! Who are you!?” Skroll was nearly hysterical. 

This person was audacious and looked very stupid, but he did nearly doomed everything Skroll’s worked for. 

Looking at this person closely, especially at this distance, Skroll was surprised to realize that he hasn’t been talking to another God after all. 

This person looked like a man. He’s tall, had a long aqua-marine hair, fair skin tone and wore a very lose robe, his eyes were like obsidian orbs with a golden outline. There’s a faint outline of a crown above his head and he radiates a pure and benevolent aura, something that Skroll had never felt before. 

The image of this man rattled Skroll out of his thoughts, he gasped upon the realization and blurted out: “Human?” 

“Hey, that’s rude. I have a name!” The man protested, frowning at his direction but it doesn’t seem overly threatening since he only did that shortly before observing his surroundings once more. 

“A human! Wait no! How did you get in here! I demand you to explain yourself.” Skroll ordered menacingly but the human doesn’t seemed fazed. 

“I walked-in, duh.” The human replied without looking at him. “How else am I supposed to enter?”

“But-…but…” Skroll stuttered. He really couldn’t find any way to refute those words. It does make sense after all.

…like hell it does! What the hell is a Human doing here? This is the outer rims of Paradise! Home of the Gods! How the hell did he enter without being detected!? 

“Hah! This is absurd!” 

Realizing that he was being lead-on by a human of all things, caused Skroll to mock himself. Why is he on-guard? He’s just a human? A puny human!

“You know that you doomed yourself by going here, right?” Skroll scoffed as he looked mockingly at this stupid human. 

“Is that so?” 

“I know so.” Skroll stated confidently, he looked at the human and said: “You know, I can make you death less painful. Treat it as a grace from me. I only need you to tell me where Divine Realm is located-hey! What are you doing! Don’t touch that!”

“But why?” 

“Cause I said so! Put it down! Listen to me, damn it!” 

“But it’s shiny.” 

“What’s up with you and shiny things!? Are you a crow or something!?”

“…a Raven actually.” The human smirked at him. 

“I don’t fucking care! Drop that thing down or else you’re gonna regret ever touching that.” 

The human looked at Skroll with a difficult expression which made him confused.

“What a conundrum…should I even listen to the words of a dead man?” 

“What do you-!”

Shick!

Skroll’s eyes bulged from their sockets, he looked down in disbelief at his chest where he saw a dagger tip piercing through his God Core. He also felt his vision blurring out, a symptom that he was poisoned. He tried his best to look behind him to see who stabbed him.

“Hi, Darling. Missed me?” 

“F-Finn…” Skroll chuckled mirthlessly. Finding this whole ordeal unbelievable. He choked on his own blood as he could feel life draining out of him. 

“This is Karma, my love.” Finneas uttered with thick venom lacing his voice. “If there’s hell, we’ll see each other there. Farewell…”

Those were the last words the Skroll heard before he felt the last traces of warmth leaving him and his lost consciousness.

Finneas felt a great burden leaving his shoulders. With the deed now down, he didn’t feel happy. Just empty. The only thing left to do is for him to die and this will all end how it’s supposed to. 

“So…Finneas right?” 

Unexpectedly, the Human who infiltrated the base spoke to him and also know who he was. Finn looked at him in shocked as he was asked:

“What do you think of my acting?”